Scene Nine

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Summary

Later the same evening, Blanche sits tensely in the bedroom.
On a nearby table are a bottle of liquor and a glass. The Varsouviana,
the polka music that was playing when Blanche’s husband killed himself,
can be heard. Williams’s stage directions state that the music we hear
is in Blanche’s head, and that she drinks to escape it.

Mitch, unshaven and wearing work clothes, comes to the
door. The doorbell startles Blanche. She asks who it is, and when
he gruffly replies, the polka music stops. She frantically scurries
about, applying powder to her face and stashing the liquor in a
closet before letting Mitch in with a cheerful reprimand for having
missed her birthday celebration. She expects a kiss, but Mitch walks
right past her into the apartment. Blanche is frightened but continues
in her light and airy mode, scolding him for his disheveled appearance and
forgiving him in the same breath.

Mitch, a bit drunk, stares and then asks Blanche to turn
off the fan, which she does. He plops down on the bed and lights
a cigarette. She offers him a drink, fibbing that she isn’t sure
what the Kowalskis have on hand, but Mitch says he doesn’t want
Stanley’s liquor. Blanche retorts that she’s bought her own liquor,
then changes the subject to Mitch’s mother’s health. Mitch is suspicious of
Blanche’s interest in his mother, so she backs off, saying she just wants
to know the source of Mitch’s sour mood. As Blanche retreats into
herself, the polka music again begins in her head, and she speaks
of it agitatedly, identifying it as the same tune that was playing
when her husband, Allan, killed himself. She breaks off, then explains
that the usual sound of a gunshot, which makes the music stop, has
come. Mitch has no idea what Blanche is talking about and has little
patience for her anxiety.

As Blanche rambles on about the birthday evening Mitch
missed, she pretends to discover the whiskey bottle in the closet.
She takes her charade so far as to ask what Southern Comfort is.
Mitch says the bottle must be Stan’s, and he rudely rests his foot
on Blanche’s bed. Blanche asks Mitch to take his foot off the bed
and goes on about the liquor, pretending to taste it for the first
time. Mitch again declines a drink and says that Stanley claims
Blanche has guzzled his liquor all summer on the sly.

At last Blanche asks point-blank what is on Mitch’s mind.
Mitch continues to beat around the bush, asking why the room is
always so dark. He comments that he has never seen Blanche in full
light or in the afternoon. She has always made excuses on Sunday
afternoons and has only gone out with him after six to dimly lit
places. Blanche says she doesn’t get Mitch’s meaning, and he says
that he’s never had a good look at her. Mitch tears the paper lantern
off the lightbulb. She begs him not to turn the light on, but he
says that he wants to be “realistic.” Blanche cries that she doesn’t
like realism and “want[s] magic.” She explains that her policy is
to say what “ought” to be true. Mitch switches the light on, and
Blanche lets out a cry and covers her face. He turns the light off.

Mitch says he doesn’t really care about Blanche’s age,
but he cannot stand the way Blanche lied to him all summer, pretending
to be old-fashioned and morally upright. Blanche tries to deny Mitch’s charge,
but Mitch says that he has heard stories about her from three different
sources: Stanley, Shaw, and a merchant from Laurel named Kiefaber
with whom Mitch spoke on the phone. Each man presented the same
facts about Blanche’s shady past. Blanche argues that all three
men are liars, and that Kiefaber concocted stories about her as
revenge for her spurning his affection.

I don't understand your view of how Blanche's rape, In which you stated, "Blanche's most visceral experiences are illusions and repressed memories that torment her, so that her rape seems an almost inevitable consequence of her psychological pain." How exactly, in anyway, is Blanche's rape inevitable? Did she appeal weak stimulating Stanley's carnal desire to conquer Blanche's threatening, bourgeoisie personality?

Wait, wait. Mitch -doesn't rape someone- and that makes him a gentleman? C'mon. That's a pretty low bar for "gentleman" isn't it? That word has a specific meaning and it is for sure not "doesn't commit a horrible, violent crime even though he wants to."

I think the wording you're looking for there is something other than "fundamental gentlemanliness." There is a whole lot of daylight between simply not being a violent criminal and being a gentleman.